The war of words between Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) got even more heated yesterday, this time turning to foreign media outlets who have characterized Tsai as Taiwan’s “Robin Hood.”
Ma over the weekend mocked comparisons between the DPP presidential candidate and the popular folk hero.
“The foreign press has described Tsai as a Robin Hood-like heroine, but to my understanding Robin Hood should fight for justice, rather than spread rumors and set up decent people,” Ma said on Saturday.
Photo: CNA
Tsai was likened to a modern-day Robin Hood mainly because of the DPP’s piggy bank fundraising drive, while some have likened her election campaign to a Jasmine Revolution-type movement.
In response to Ma’s remarks, Tsai told a campaign rally in Greater Taichung yesterday that the heroic outlaw “only appears in times of failed governance.”
“People only look forward to the emergence of a Robin Hood-like figure when a leader is failing miserably,” she said.
It is not unusual for foreign news services to pay attention to Taiwan’s presidential elections, she said, as they have been monitoring every step of Taiwan’s democratization through the years.
The reason foreign journalists chose to characterize the presidential election in terms of “Robin Hood” and the “Jasmine Revolution” probably suggests they sense the change that has taken place in the country during the election campaign, Tsai said.
The “Three Little Pigs” campaign encourages participatory democracy — voters do not just blindly cast ballots, but think about social justice and speak out if they find something needs to be done by the government before they make their choice at the ballot box, Tsai said.
The changes represent the maturity and the positive evolution of Taiwan’s democracy, Tsai said, adding that she did not understand why Ma was so concerned by the foreign media’s observations that he had to bring them up repeatedly during Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rallies.
The piggy banks symbolize the “collective will” of Taiwanese to change the country, she said.
As for the Robin Hood description, Tsai said Ma should ask himself why people would look forward to the emergence of a “modern-day Robin Hood.”
“That’s because the government has failed to care for the poor and the underprivileged,” she said. “Instead, the government has spent too much money on meaningless projects.”
Tsai also denounced Ma’s shadowing strategy of imitating the DPP’s every move. She said there should be a change of government because the current leader does not know how to make his own decisions.
Ma visited the eastern county of Taitung, where local agriculture has been hit by week-long rainfall, on Saturday night after Tsai had visited the county earlier the same day.
The Ma administration also decided last week to overturn its previous proposal to raise the monthly farmers’ subsidy by NT$316 and opted to raise it by NT$1,000, which the DPP had proposed in a move that had been blocked by the KMT in the legislature.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
WAR’S END ANNIVERSARY: ‘Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,’ the president said on social media after attending a morning ceremony Countries should uphold peace, and promote freedom and democracy, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday as Taiwan marked 80 years since the end of World War II and the Second Sino-Japanese War. Lai, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and other top officials in the morning attended a ceremony at the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) to honor those who sacrificed their lives in major battles. “Taiwanese are peace-loving. Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,” Lai wrote on Facebook afterward, apparently to highlight the contrast with the military parade in Beijing marking the same anniversary. “We
RSS